City life is getting steadily harder. Life in the capital, Dhaka, has changed greatly over the past few years. At the start of every year a pile of expenses weighs down like a stone: house rent and children's education costs always rise, and on top of that come inflation, VAT and tax, higher gas and electricity prices, and higher commodity prices driven by the global economic situation. Today brings the third instalment of a four-part series by senior reporter Yasir Arafat Ripon on the struggle to survive in the city.

With prices rising, people in the country cannot make their income match their spending, and the pressure is even greater for city dwellers. Vegetable prices are within reach in winter, but rice, oil and other essentials are expensive. Rice prices keep rising even at the height of the season, and oil prices rose only a few days ago. At the start of the year, large sums also go on house rent and children's education.

All in all, city dwellers' income and spending are out of balance. Even the middle class is being forced to stand in TCB queues with masks on their faces. Daily menus are being cut back. Fruit is very expensive, and most people cannot afford to buy it.

City residents say ordinary people cannot meet their needs because of unchecked price rises. A kg of rice now costs Tk 50 to 80, making it hard even for ordinary working people to buy rice. Nor can they switch from rice to bread, because flour is also expensive.

According to the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), which works on consumer rights, the cost of living has risen by nearly 10 percent because of excessive prices. Meanwhile the government has imposed VAT and tax on more than a hundred products, including many essentials. Although duties and taxes on a few products and services were withdrawn, many remain, raising fears of another round of price rises. Many prices have already gone up.

The prices of education materials have also risen. In healthcare, medicines, medical equipment and everything else can be said to be beyond ordinary people's reach. For these reasons, simply surviving in the city is now a major struggle.

Ayesha Khatun works at a government agency, and her husband works at a private company. They live in a small two-room flat with one child. On top of the cost of essentials comes the child's education, and their income does not cover it. So after office she has to queue at a TCB truck sale. Arriving near the end, she gets rice one day and lentils another; the other goods sell out earlier. It took her five days of trying to buy oil.

Ayesha told Jago News: "We are now in a fight to stay alive. Apart from vegetables, no essential is within reach. The price of rice has gone up further. Taking all this into account, I can say we are just about surviving..."

She said: "I give my child noodles without egg for tiffin. She has her wants too, but I can't meet them all. What we earn would be enough if everything were cheaper. When I stand in the TCB queue, many people say, 'But you have a job.' Now I am forced to keep a mask on so that no one recognises me."

Abdul Hamid, an official at a private company, is in the same situation. He told Jago News: "Oil, rice, lentils: everything is expensive. What do I buy? Without it there's no cooking. At home there's my child and my parents, and I can't keep everyone happy. My father came from the village and cannot work. Seeing our financial strain, he has several times brought goods from the TCB queue. It is very painful."

TCB dealer Habibur Rahman said: "A truck sale carries goods for 350 people, but there are more buyers than that, so it's not possible to give everyone goods. Many good people from middle-class families come and take goods with their faces covered. They keep their faces hidden; just seeing it I can tell how hard things are."

To pay for essentials, many are cutting fish and meat from their diets. Abir Hossain lives at Kalshi in Mirpur and works at a company in Motijheel. Now and then he buys cheap vegetables at Karwan Bazar in the evening for home. The days go by, but there is no meat in the month; he has forgotten when he last bought beef.

Abir told Jago News: "Spending is far higher than what I earn now. To save money I rented a flat far away in Kalshi, and my daughter studies at a government school. Now rents have gone up because of the metro rail, so extra money goes there. By the time I pay school costs and buy rice and lentils, the month's money is gone. Beef and chicken are luxury goods for me. I can't remember when I last bought beef. All costs have risen, but salaries don't."

Sujon, a meat seller in Basabo, said: "We used to sell a lot of beef. Demand for beef and duck usually rises in winter, but it has fallen now. Even two cattle don't sell out. If meat doesn't sell, it dries out and loses weight. Now we are neither making a profit nor a loss."

Chicken sellers report the same. Borhan, a trader in Khilgaon, told Jago News: "Chicken sales at our shop are not what they were. They have fallen by half."

According to the Department of Livestock Services, meat production or consumption fell by nearly 50 percent over three months. Meat production in the country was 12.25 lakh tonnes last July and 6.41 lakh tonnes in August. In September it was 6.39 lakh tonnes, and the downward trend continued in October, when only six lakh tonnes were produced. On that basis, total meat production or consumption in the country halved over three months. Figures for the following months are not yet available.

S M Nazer Hossain, vice-president of CAB, told Jago News: "Because of prices, low-income people are being deprived of protein. People on low and middle incomes are also in trouble because of rising prices of essentials. The government must be stricter in controlling the market, and action must be taken against those involved in market syndicates."

Fruit is in the same situation, with a shortage of buyers at shops. Akhteruzzaman's fruit shop in the Moghbazar Wireless area is quite old, and he sells from morning until night. He told Jago News: "All kinds of customers come to my shop, buying anything from a single fruit to fruit by the kg. But with everything becoming more expensive recently, demand for fruit has fallen. People have to choose between buying rice and lentils and eating fruit. I used to bring fruit from the wholesale market every two days; now I go once a week."

Customer Sulaiman agreed. He told Jago News: "I used to buy fruit for the whole family; now I buy it only for my child. Fruit is now expensive along with everything else."

Public health expert Dr Lelin Chowdhury told Jago News: "People's purchasing power is falling, and the main reason is rising prices. To save money, ordinary people are changing their diets. Higher prices of everything have inevitably lowered the quality of food. There is now a shortfall in the balanced food people need to eat every day to stay healthy, which is harming their health."

He added: "People cannot get the protein their bodies need, or the fats they need, and the same is happening with vegetables and fruit. As a result, malnutrition is appearing, the body's immunity is falling, and people's capacity to work declines, wasting national working hours. This has a severe negative effect on national production and the national economy."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.